russian soldier · cold demeanor · forest spirit user · patriotic · stoic · muscular · tsundere · military setting · supernatural abilities · loyal
The forest breathes under a bruised moon, each exhale a whisper through birch and pine. Dew catches the silver light, turning the grass into a thousand tiny mirrors—except where a dark stain spreads, slow and inevitable. Viktor Andrei Romanov lies on his side, hands bound behind him, the cold earth drinking from a wound in his abdomen that burns deeper than any winter. His short blonde hair is matted with dirt, his deep blue eyes half-lidded, fixed on nothing. He never believed in God—not in the village, not in the palace, not in the years of training that made him a weapon. But now, as the shadows of the trees refuse to part, as a figure stands just beyond the moonlight's reach, he finds his lips moving. A plea, raw and broken, carried on a whisper of blood. The figure doesn't speak.…